Big Green Week – Speakers

Jonathon Porritt is Founder Director of Forum for the Future, one of the UK’s leading sustainable development charities with 70 staff and over 100 partner organisations, including some of the world’s leading companies. He is an eminent writer, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development.He was Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission from 2000 to 2009, and is Co-Director of The Prince of Wales’ Business & Sustainability Programme.

In addition he is a Non-Executive Director of Wessex Water, and of Willmott Dixon Holdings, and a Trustee of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy. He was formerly Director of Friends of the Earth (1984-90); co-chair of the Green Party (1980-83) of which he is still a member; chairman of UNED-UK (1993-96); chairman of Sustainability South West(1999-2001); a Trustee of WWF UK (1991-2005), and on the Board of the SW Regional Development Agency (1999-2008).

Clive Hamilton is an Australian public intellectual and Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics and the Vice-Chancellor’s Chair in Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University.

He is also the Founder and former Executive Director of the Australia Institute. Hamilton has written about the issue of climate change politics over a period of some 15 years as well as the issues of consumerism and overconsumption.

Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change. He is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009.

Time Magazine called him the planet’s best green journalist’ and the Boston Globe said in 2010 that he was probably the country’s most important environmentalist.’ Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, he holds honorary degrees from a dozen colleges, including the Universities of Massachusetts and Maine, the State University of New York, and Whittier and Colgate Colleges. In 2011 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

James has worked for Triodos Bank since 1998 and is a specialist in environmental and social finance.

He heads the Investment Banking team and is a Fund Manager for Triodos Renewables plc, investing equity in a range of renewable energy projects.

James has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Energy Saving Trust’s Innovation Programme and is a member of the Finance Working Group of the government’s Renewables Advisory Board.

Ed Mayo is Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, the national trade body that campaigns for co-operation and works to promote, develop and unite co-operative enterprises.

He is a long-term co-operator and has a track record of innovation and impact in his work to bring together economic life and social justice. From 2003 – 2009, he was Chief Executive of the National Consumer Council, merging this with two other bodies to found a new statutory consumer champion, Consumer Focus, in 2008.

Ed was described by the Independent as “the most authoritative voice in the country speaking up for consumers”, while the Guardian has nominated him as one of the top 100 most influential figures in British social policy. He has co-written a book, “Consumer Kids” with Agnes Nairn on marketing to children, published by Constable in 2009.

Solitaire Townsend co-founded Futerra, the world’s leading sustainable development communications agency. She advises global brands including Unilever, Greenpeace, ASDA, Danone and the United Nations on making green messages great.

Solitaire is passionate (and occasionally argumentative) about the need to make sustainability desirable rather than doom-laden. As she says “selling sustainability isn’t like selling a new brand of soap, it’s like persuading people to use soap in the first place.” This is reflected in Futerra’s popular reports like the new climate message the Greenwash Guide and Branding Biodiversity.

Solitaire was named Ethical Entrepreneur of the Year 2008, is a member of the United Nations Sustainable Lifestyles Taskforce, Chair of the UK Green Energy Scheme, and is a London Leader for Sustainability. She holds Masters degrees in both Shakespeare Studies and Sustainable Development, which she admits is a little weird.

Clare is a passionate environmentalist, social entrepreneur and inspirational speaker. She brings 18 years of international experience within the personal growth sector, facilitating, coaching and creating change processes to support lasting shifts in behaviour. She is a freelance writer who worked for three years as the UK co-ordinator for a massive agro-forestry initiative in southern India called Project GreenHands (PGH) before initiating TreeSisters.

After distilling the social mobilisation strategy deployed with great success in India, she now turns it towards the mobilisation of women within TreeSisters. Clare is a lover of soil, dance, good food and meditation with a love of psychology, ecology and spirituality. She sees climate change as the perfect excuse to get radical and risk doing whatever it takes to create the world we choose.

Tony Juniper is a campaigner, writer, sustainability adviser and a well-known British environmentalist. For more than 25 years he worked for change toward a more sustainable society at local, national and international levels with several organizations including Birdlife International and Friends of the Earth.

Now Tony is an independent sustainability and environment adviser, a senior associate with the Cambridge University Program for Industry, and special adviser with The Prince of Wales’ International Sustainability Unit.

He is the editor-in-chief of National Geographic Green Magazine.

Andy Wales is Global SVP of Sustainable Development for SABMiller plc, one of the world’s largest brewers. Previously Andy held Corporate Responsibility Director roles at the environmental services group Severn Trent, and textiles firm Interface, Inc.

He holds an MBA from Warwick Business School, a masters degree in Sustainable Development Strategy from Middlesex University and a BA in English and International Development from Sussex University.

In 2009 he was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He is Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and of Forum for the Future. His favourite beers include Peroni fromItaly, Royal Challenge from India and Miller Chill from the United States.

Dr Aimee Sayer is Water Resources Planning Manager for Wessex Water.

Her role focuses on ensuring a sustainable balance between water supplies and water demands; this includes work on water efficiency and the impacts of climate change.

Before working in the water industry Aimee was a researcher and undertook a PhD with Swansea University at the Royal Society’s Danum Valley Field Centre in Malaysian Borneo.

Amory Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. His work has been focused on the field of energy policy and related areas.

In 2009 he was named by Time magazine one of the World’s 100 most influential people for his work with electric cars and other alternative energy sources.

He has promoted energy efficiency, the use of renewable energy sources, and the generation of energy at or near the site where the energy is actually used.

He has written plenty of books the last of which is called Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era.

Founder of Hab Housing, Author, Broadcaster and Designer.

Kevin is best known for the BAFTA-nominated Grand Designs and the Stirling Prize. In 2009 he won a Prix Italia for his Grand Tour. He has made series about architecture, design and urban planning and is currently filming a series about a shed.

In 2006 Kevin formed the development company Hab Housing. In partnership, the company is now building sustainable housing schemes across the West of England and last year completed their first scheme, The Triangle in Swindon, which was televised as a three-part series Kevin’s Grand Design on Channel 4 in December.

Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of the Transition Network and author of The Transition Handbook: from oil dependence to local resilience’ which has been published in a number of languages, and which was voted the 5th most popular book taken on holiday by MPs during the summer of 2008, and more recently of The Transition Companion: making your community more resilient in uncertain times’, published in October 2011. He publishes the blog www.transitionculture.org, recently voted the 4th best green blog in the UK.

Rob was named by the Independent as one of the UK’s top 100 environmentalists. He is the winner of the 2009 Observer Ethical Award for the Grassroots Campaigner category, and in December 2009 was voted the Energy Saving Trust/Guardian’s Green Community Hero’. In February 2012, Rob and the Transition Network were among NESTA and The Observer’s list of Britain’s 50 New Radicals’. He lives in Devon and grows food for his family.

Tim is Chief Executive and co-founder of the Award winning Eden Project near St Austell in Cornwall. Eden began as a dream in 1995 and opened its doors to the public in 2000, since when around 13 million people have visited.

After working for ten years in the music industry – as a composer and producer of both rock and opera – he moved in 1987, to Cornwall where he and John Nelson ‘discovered’ and then restored the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

In January 2011 he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Andrew Simms is the founder of the New Economics Foundation’s Climate Change Programme, and NEF’s Policy Director until 2010.

His latest book is ‘Eminent Corporations – the rise and fall of the great British corporation’. He was co-author of the ground-breaking Green New Deal report and co-founded the Green New Deal group. Andrew writes regularly for the national press and is on the boards of the climate campaign 10:10 and The Energy and Resources Institute Europe.

For many years he has worked for international development organisations writing extensively on issues of climate change and poverty reduction.

Deborah Meaden started her business career launching her own glass and ceramics import company straight out of Business College. With several successful businesses in the leisure and retail sector under her belt, she became managing director of Weststar Holidays, acquired the major shareholding in a management buyout and later sold the company in a deal worth 33 million whilst retaining a 23% stake. She sold her remaining stake when the business was sold for 83 million in August 2007.

In 2009, accepting a role as an Ambassador for the WWF, the world’s leading environmental organization, Deborah actively supports environmental charities and initiatives. Deborah sits on the Board of the Roundhouse, the North London arts centre, is an Ambassador for Lend with Care, Patron for Tusk Trust, Fellow with the RSA, Trustee for the Design Council and has recently become an Ambassador for WorldSkills London 2011.

Deborah joined the panel of investors for series three of the BBC2 program Dragons’ Den’ and has since invested in a number of businesses, ranging from Market Research to online Antiques valuations. Most recently she stepped in to acquire Fox Brothers, a Historic Textile firm based in the South West which was on the verge of closure.

Juliet Davenport is founder and CEO of Good Energy, the UK’s only 100% renewable electricity supplier.

Since Good Energy was founded over a decade ago it has effected real change in the energy market. It now supplies energy to more than 28,000 homes and businesses across the UK, and supports a community of more than 25,000 independent renewable generators, all harnessing natural power from the wind, water, sun or through sustainable biogeneration. Good Energy wants to change the way energy is made in this country and connect people with where it comes from – so they will value it more and use it less. Its vision is a 100% renewable future for the UK by 2050.

Juliet has won several accolades for her work, including the PEA Business Award CEO of the Year 2012, First Women Award (Retail and Consumer) 2011 and PLUS Markets CEO of the year 2009, 2010 and 2012. Good Energy has won a Sunday Times Best Green Company Award twice, an Observer Ethical Award and was named West of England Business of the Year 2009.

Caroline Lucas is leader of the Green Party as well as its first MP, representing Brighton Pavilion. She served as an MEP from 1999 until 2010 and as an Oxfordshire councillor previously.

She is Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fuel Poverty, as well as Vice Chair of the Animal Welfare, Public and Commercial Services, Sustainable Housing and CND All Party Parliamentary Groups. She is also a member of the Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee.

Caroline continues to be an active campaigner on a range of issues and has been voted the UK’s most ethical politician in 2007, 2009 and 2010 by readers of the Observer. She is also in the Environment Agency’s Top 100 Eco-Heroes of all time.

Patrick Curry is a writer and independent scholar living in London. Formerly a lecturer at Bath Spa University and the University of Kent, he earned his PhD at University College London.

He is the author of several books of cultural history, most recently a revised edition of Ecological Ethics: An Introduction (2011).

Patrick reviewes books for History Today, New Statesman, The Guardian, The Independent and (most often) the Times Literary Supplement; appeared on two television programmes; and taken part in two programmes on BBC Radio Four. He also appears in interviews of two of the three extended New Line DVD’s on The Lord of the Rings.

Polly Higgins is a barrister, author and creator of new laws to protect the Earth. Voted by the Ecologist as one of the Worlds Top 10 Visionary Thinkers, Polly advanced to the United Nations the proposal for Ecocide to be made a crime, the 5th Crime Against Peace, to sit alongside Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes and Crimes of Aggression.

Polly has received various nominations and has been named The Planet’s lawyer by the 2010 Performance Awards. She was identified as one of the top unreasonable people’ in the world by the cult US online magazine Planet Green for refusing to accept the norm and hailed by The Guardian as one of their Green Heroes working for the right kind of environmental change.

John Elkington is best known as a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. In 2004, BusinessWeek described him as “a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades”.

In 2008, The Evening Standard named John among the 1000 Most Influential People’ in London, describing him as “a true green business guru,” and as “an evangelist for corporate social and environmental responsibility long before it was fashionable.”

John founded Environmental Data Services (ENDS, 1978), the consultancy and think-tank SustainAbility (1987-2008, where he is a non-executive member of the Board) and most recently Volans, where he is Executive Chairman.

Volans launched in April 2008, and is a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements. Volans applies thought leadership and global networks across these areas to develop solutions for entrepreneurs, businesses, governments and investors.

John’s latest book, The Zeronauts was published this earlier this year.

Michael Pawlyn established Exploration in 2007 to focus exclusively on biomimicry. In 2008 the company was short-listed for the Young Architect of the Year Award and the internationally renowned Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

Prior to setting up the company Michael Pawlyn worked with Grimshaw for ten years and was central to the team that radically re-invented horticultural architecture for the Eden Project. He was responsible for leading the design of the Warm Temperate and Humid Tropics Biomes and the subsequent phases that included proposals for a third Biome for plants from dry tropical regions.

He has lectured widely on the subject of sustainable design in the UK and abroad and in May 2005 delivered a talk at the Royal Society of Arts with Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface. In 2007 Michael Pawlyn delivered a talk at Google’s annual Zeitgeist’ conference and, in 2011, became one of only a small handful of architects to have a talk posted on TED.com. In the same year, his book Biomimicry in Architecture was published by the Royal Institute of British Architects. He is currently working on a range of biomimicry-based architectural projects and a book commissioned by TED.

Having gained her business knowledge working for Marks and Spencer and British Airways in the UK, Asia and the USA, Felicity Hartnett found her passion for corporate responsibility 10 years ago when she discovered that her focus had aligned perfectly with her interests in the social, environmental and ecomonic impacts of business that were first formed whilst studying for a Geography degree at Nottingham University.

Working for the Olympic and Paralympic Games since 2005, has allowed her to bring her personal passion for sport and sustainability together creating a once in a lifetime opportunity to inspire a generation through the delivery of a truly sustainable London 2012 Games.

Writer, poet, enemy of all that’s difficult and upsetting, Matt’s way with words has taken him from Totnes to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships via Saturday Live, the Edinburgh Festival and the Work section of the Guardian. He is host of Wondermentalist – Radio 4′s comedy-infused, musically enhanced interactive poetry cabaret – and author of The Hole in the Sum of my Parts (Poetry Trust) and Where Earwigs Dare (Green Books). He is married, with one wife. They have two sons.

Matt is the creator of Empath Man, who had his own mini-series on Radio 4 – “Very funny, very satirical” The Times – and his recent Edinburgh show also garnered excellent reviews.